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The Myth of Kennel Blindness

Hang out with show breeders for any length of time, and youâ€™ll hear it. â€œSheâ€™s so kennel-blind,â€ or â€œClassic kennel blindness.â€

What this is supposed to mean is that people fall in love with their own dogs so much that they canâ€™t see whatâ€™s wrong with them in terms of conformation. They therefore continue down a path of mediocrity and will never produce the quality that they should.

Itâ€™s usually said with great superiority and a little feigned sadness; poor Phyllis, who is so kennel-blind. Iâ€™ve never seen a good front come out of her kennel in all the fifteen years Iâ€™ve known her.

What kennel-blind has come to be is a nice neat epithet of total dismissal. â€œNot only are her dogs crappy, she canâ€™t even SEE that theyâ€™re crappy. That is how DUMB she is.â€ Itâ€™s the perfect put-down, a combination of slashing criticism of an entire breeding program AND the person who orchestrated it.

BUTâ€¦I have never ONCE, in all the thousands of times Iâ€™ve heard this phrase, listened to somebody say â€œI am kennel-blind.â€ In fact, I have only ever heard â€œI am harder on my own dogs than anyone else.â€ And I think thatâ€™s true. We all nit-pick our dogs to death. We are all acutely aware of every hair on the dog thatâ€™s not perfect.

So â€“ if a whole ton of people who are not ME are kennel-blind and I am never kennel blind, and that sentence is being repeated across thousands of breeders, whatâ€™s the truth?

The truth is that â€œkennel-blindâ€ really means â€œShe has different priorities than I do.â€ You can tell this instantly based on the breeders you personally would say are the LEAST kennel-blind. Their dogs tend to look a lot like your dogs, huh? (Or, if youâ€™re a younger breeder, the way you wish your dogs would look.) Their dogsâ€™ strengths just happen to mirror your dogsâ€™ strengths, donâ€™t they?

Hereâ€™s why we need to shut the heck up: YOU do not make decisions for peopleâ€™s breeding programs, and YOU do not have any right to tell them their priorities. The standard lists scores, even â€“ depending on the breed â€“ hundreds, of qualities a dog should have. You as a breeder have the task of putting all of those in a list and prioritizing them. Some do so starting with the head; I may not agree with them, but theyâ€™re no less dedicated to the breed than I am. If they put a dog out there who has a gorgeous head and a bad rear, they are no less kennel-blind than I am with the perfect rears and the common heads. I have the right to not breed to their dogs, but I do not have the right to say that theyâ€™re stupid and canâ€™t even see whatâ€™s in front of them.

Finally, where the heck do we get off implying that itâ€™s wrong to love the FRACK out of our dogs? Of course we should be hopelessly and totally in love with our dogs! If thatâ€™s not the kind of breeder you are â€“ if you are completely unsentimental â€“ then fine. But it doesnâ€™t make you a better breeder than someone who is head over heels and sloppy for every single one of their breeding prospects. More power to them, honestly.